Friday, February 15, 2008

It was an excellent occasion at the last session of the Academy as we celebrated 2 surpise guest speakers in addition to our scheduled guest, Walter Gatus.

We had the pleasure of a visit from Snakebite, (third from the left) as well as Andres Alvarez (next to Snakebite on the right). Snakebite is a former student and instructor and a world class Photoshop artist. Andres is a former student of the Academy who went on to become an instructor with us and then founded his own school, The Animation Design Center in Torrance, California, which is in the South Bay area of Los Angeles.

Here they are in the company of a few of our admiring group.

Walter Gatus, another former student who made it big in the animation biz, stopped by to share his portfolio and recent work he's been doing as a character designer on the upcoming series "The Spectacular Spiderman" scheduled to air next month from Sony TV Animation. Walter is in the dark blue shirt to the left of the table.

The action at the Academy as Walter spends extra time with a group of students while others are channeling their inspiration by busting out their own artwork.

Andres Alvarez topped off the evening with a showing of his own, a collection of his work and those of his students from the Animation Design Center. He's the guy with the big smile on the left.

It's been an exceptional and memorable semester these past few weeks as we enjoyed the 10th anniversary of the school and a big turnout in students and creative activity. Thanks to everyone who's been a part of it. The next semester, 11.2 will begin March 4. Hope to see you there.